Summary: A new study reports blood samples taken from those with Schizophrenia contain genetic material from more types of microbes than people without the condition. Additionally, the blood samples contained less CD8+ memory T cells.
Source: Oregon State University.
The blood of schizophrenia patients features genetic material from more types of microorganisms than that of people without the debilitating mental illness, research at Oregon State University has found.
What’s not known is whether that’s a cause or effect of the severe, chronic condition that strikes about one person in 100.
“It’s a common assumption that healthy blood is sterile so some may find it surprising that we even found bacterial genetic material in the bloodstream,” said David Koslicki, a mathematical biologist in the OSU College of Science.
Koslicki and collaborators performed whole-blood transcriptome analyses on 192 people. Subjects included healthy controls as well as those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
